Among Gods
by stAnd out - SHOUT OUT
Summary: Savannah, woken from a seventy year sleep, can't remember so much as her name. Trying to adapt to everyday life was easier than expected, but SHIELD has always had an eye on her and a file saved in the system. When one God of Mischief finds this file and her forgotten past within it, he wastes no time in collecting her. What is so special about one forgotten human woman? Loki/OC
1. Disgust of Humanity

**Disgust of Humanity**

Bolting up in bed, chest heaving to take in deep drags of oxygen, Savannah threw her arms outward as though to fight off an invisible enemy. Skin shining with sweat and eyes dilated in the darkness, it took her a minute for the disorientation of sleep to fade away, allowing her to finally see her own bedroom before her. Continuing to gasp for air, she drew her knees up toward her chest to rest her forehead atop them and try to calm down the erratic beat of her heart. All of her limbs were shaking and her hair was sticking to her skin from the sweat, leaving her annoyed and afraid. The images that had awoken her were still so distant in her memory; she didn't even recognize the faces that brought her so much fear each and every night.

It was fairly recently that Savannah had woken from a somewhat forced coma, a coma that had lasted over seventy years. Dug out of the ice alongside Captain America, she didn't have the same trouble that he did when he awoke. Unlike Steve, she didn't even remember her own name when she opened her eyes, let along the people that she had been forced to leave behind that would have been waiting for her. In a way to protect her, SHIELD refused to tell her of most of her past. She knows her name is Savannah Avery Soul, and that she didn't have any family when she disappeared, but she didn't know _why_ she had disappeared.

In a way, she supposed that was better, to not know what had happened to her. Every night she was tormented with faces that she didn't know and feelings that were long forgotten. The fear of whatever had happened still lingered in her subconscious, and she was relieved that she only had to deal with the fear at night. It helped to know that whatever she was afraid of was in the past and far away from her; long ago dead and buried.

Heaving a sigh, she fell backward into her sweat soaked sheets, wincing at the cold feeling. Looking to the side, the bright numbers of her alarm clock told her that she actually had three more hours to sleep before she had to go to work, but she just couldn't imagine herself getting anymore rest that night—or morning, really. So, instead of closing her eyes and trying to ignore the faces, she threw her covers off her body and began the process of stripping her bed to change the sheets before she would jump into the shower and wash off the sweat from her body.

It had become a painful and irritating routine from the first day that she had woken up. Her mind pressed images and memories onto her even though she had no clue what she was looking at. She could see a smiling face and assume it was her friend, but the fear that was pressed onto her from her subconscious was so strong that she knew that that wasn't right.

Now living on her own, far away from the military that had found her, she was holding a job at a popular family café in the area and was slowly building up her social life. No one knew about her background, so she was easily able to move about without people recognizing her and her strange life. A job wasn't even required, the military was paying for her apartment and all else that she needed. Feeling incompetent, she had begun looking for small, easy jobs and fell in love with the thought of working at her favourite café.

Carefully stripping off her shirt, she turned her back toward the mirror in her bathroom and did her best to examine it over her shoulder, craning her neck for a better view. The skin was pale white, just as the rest of her body, but there were large, scarred over puncture marks from needles with permanent blue toned bruises surrounding each circular scar. She knew that it was tied into the frightening nightmares she had, but she didn't feel it would help to ask SHIELD about the markings. There were eight in total, four on either side of her spine in perfectly straight rows and columns. Three more adorned the base of her neck, only these were slightly smaller and less visible; the only reason she had been able to find them was because she had been searching her body for all scars, freckles, birth marks, and abnormalities. It was a strange feeling, not recognizing one's own body.

The shower water was soothing against her skin when she stepped under the spray and she took a moment to just let it fall down on her, soaking her skin and washing away the disgusting residue from her dreams. Her golden hair darkened and flattened down against her skull, collecting the water until it began to pour from the strands in rivers. Wiping her hands over her face, she couldn't stop a contented sigh from passing her lips and leaning back against the tile of her shower.

Instead of wasting water she continued with scrubbing herself clean and removing all of the grime from her person, pulling her fingers through her hair and leaning back under the spray. The knots gave way and her conditioner ran from the strands with the water, rushing down the drain.

The only thing that was different about this morning's routine was that her phone has never rung while she was in the shower.

Rushing to make sure there was no conditioner left, she turned the water off and leapt from the shower, wrapped herself in a large towel as rushed back into her bedroom. The only light inside the room was from her alarm clock and her now lit up cell phone, the device still confusing to her at times. Turning speaker on, she held the phone in her shivering hand as she answered it and rushed back toward the warm, steam filled bathroom.

"Hello?"

"Miss. Soul?" a familiar, professional voice asked that caused her to repress a cringe came through the phone. She didn't have anything against Agent Coulson, but her waking memories of him weren't exactly fond ones and she wished that she could move past them.

"Hi, Phil," she greeted, closing the bathroom door to seal the warmth inside. "What can I do for you so early?"

"There has been an attack and it has comes to Director Fury's attention that you may be targeted," he stated bluntly. Savannah almost dropped the phone as she looked to her wet and dripping reflection in her mirror, hazel eyes wide.

"Pardon?" she was able to choke out.

"There is an agent on route to your residence; he should be arriving there within the house. Please, get together a bag and be ready for when he arrives. Don't answer the door for anyone else and should someone else try to get in contact me immediately." Savannah was trembling by the time he finished speaking and managed to say quiet affirmations before the conversation was ended. She was able to robotically call her employer and leave a message that stated she wouldn't be at work before moving to her bedroom closet and getting ready.

In the back of her mind she had been dreading the phone call from SHIELD that was bound to happen, always hoping that they would just forget about her and leave her to live through her mentally tormented life. Pulling on a form fitting black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, she began to throw together a bag of simple things she would need; clothes, toiletries, cell phone charger. The calm that she had been able to achieve after her nightmare had completely disappeared.

Looking to the clock, Savannah sighed at the thirty minutes that were still remaining on the expected timeline and she moved to her kitchen to try and make herself something to snack on her alleviate her nerves. Who would attack SHIELD? Who would target her? There was a select few that even _knew_ about her.

She nearly dropped her mug of tea when there was a sharp rap on her loft door, her heart leaping in her chest and making all of her muscles lock for a moment. Placing the cup aside with shaking hands, she made a dash for her door and leaned against the door to look out through the peephole. A man stood on the other side, wearing all black with a serious look on his face as he gazed at the door. Frowning, Savannah realized that she didn't know what the agent that would come for her even looked like.

"Who is it?" she called through, hoping for some kind of answer to her questions.

"Agent Barton. Please, Miss. Soul, open the door," he called, looking toward the peephole with vibrant blue eyes.

"Show me your ID," she demanded, feeling far more brave behind the thick wooden and steel door. The man dug through his coat for a moment before pulling out his credentials. It had been so long since she had seen any kind of SHIELD credentials that she didn't truly know what to expect, but the photo ID seemed to do well enough and she slowly pulled back and unlocked her deadbolt.

By the time the door was open Agent Barton had put his ID away and was waiting patiently for her. She looked him over briefly before her eyes moved to where there was someone leaning against the wall to the right of her door, out of view before. Her heart dropped when she caught sight of the out of place garb and lethal looking sceptre in his hand. Without thinking on it a moment, she moved to slam the door closed once more, but Barton's hand shot out and stopped the door before she could close it fully.

Instead of attempting to fight against him, she turned on heel and rushed toward her bedroom where she had left her cellphone, darting through her apartment with amazing speed. She was able to slam her bedroom door closed and lock it before diving toward her bed, hitting the speed dial that she had been ordered to put on her phone when Fury gave it to her. It was still ringing against her ear when her door was blown open with a well-placed kick, wooden splinters flying into the room and raining down on her carpet.

The phone falling from her hands, Savannah turned in time for another dark dressed man to grasp her arm in an iron hold, tugging on the limb to try and get her moving back toward the main entrance. Reacting on instinct, much as she had when she first woke up surrounded by strange faces and machinery, her hand snapped forward and the ball of her palm met the man's nose and she could hear it crunch on impact. His head snapped back and he released her arm, falling backward with a cry of pain as blood began to poor over his top lip.

Freed again, Savannah moved to run to her window to escape through the fire escape but hadn't even made a 90 degree turn before something cold and hard collided with the back of her head, blackening her vision and banishing her consciousness from the waking world. An arm slipped around her waist to prevent her from hitting the floor, leaving her body to hang limp in their hold.

"What spirit, hm?" Loki asked sarcastically as he looked down at the agent that was still on Savannah's floor, just as unconscious as his attacker. "Collect her bag, we are leaving." Hoisting the woman further up his arm, he draped her over one shoulder and turned to leave, fixing his grip on the sceptre after he had knocked Savannah out with it.

Barton snatched her bag from the bed and followed after Loki immediately, marching through her apartment without a care. Only taking the time to close her front door, they were soon exiting the building all together, stealing the woman right out from under the noses of the agents of SHIELD. Leaving the other agent bleeding on her bedroom floor, neither of the two men noticed the discarded cell phone that sat a few feet away from him, the screen holding Coulson's photo as he listened from the other end.

The early morning hour provided the emptiness that they needed to get back to the truck, Savannah still draped over Loki's arm, without anyone seeing and slowing them down. Selvig remained sitting in the passenger seat, awaiting their return as he hugged the Tesseract's case to himself, while Barton moved to the driver's door and Loki moved to the back as he had before. Savannah's unconscious body was pliant and easy to lie on the bed of the truck as Barton shifted into drive and sped off once more.

The only sign to show they had been there at all was the damage hidden within Savannah's apartment and the annoyed neighbours that she had woken running along the hardwood floors and slamming her door. No one knew what had transpired and never would. They would remain blissfully ignorant until the world began to fall down around them. The man destined to do so once only yards away from them, kidnapping their neighbour that they remained annoyed with in such a disgusting show of humanity, now moving off as his carefully thought out and construction plans began to fall into motion.

**I had tried to make another Avengers story, but I was so unhappy with how it turned out that I deleted it about a day after I had published it. So, this is my second attempt and I am **_**much**_** more pleased with it! This is kind of a chapter one and kind of a prologue, the next chapter is when the interesting part of the story begins; Savannah meeting Loki and being **_**pissed**_** about it. In case anyone hasn't caught on, yes, she has amnesia! She doesn't remember **_**anything**_**.**

**Please leave a review, it doesn't take long and it helps me to know if I'm doing this story the right way!**


	2. One Sweet, White Lie

**One Sweet, White Lie**

The first thing that Savannah noticed as she came back to consciousness was that the air around her was moist and cold, as though she was sitting in a cellar. The second thing that she noticed was the painful, almost agonizing throb that was starting at the back of her skull and slowly pounding its way forward behind her eyes. A groan issued from deep in her throat as she reached up and felt the tender flesh at the back of her skull, a small bump left behind with what she knew must have been a nasty bruise.

Opening her eyes, she found herself staring up at a dimly lit stone ceiling, her head pulsing even with the low tone of illumination. Beginning to sit up, her entire body tensed when she distantly caught sight of someone else in the room. Upon first seeing the glowing light coming from the staff her body reacted before she had a chance to stop herself, pushing off the single bed she had been resting on and stumbling into the wall beside it, as far from her attacker as she could get.

The room spun around her as her head swam, her shoulder slamming into the wall to stop herself from hitting the floor instead. Her hand moved to the back of her head in some desperate hope that it would help to push the pain away. The wall was cold and wet against her side, drawing bumps across her torso and a shiver along her spine. A hand descending onto her head kicked her into motion once more and she threw her hands outward, putting her entire body into the action, and slammed her splayed palms against his chest to push him back.

His face registered shock as she was actually able to force him back a couple of feet, his hand moving to the wall to balance himself. A sinister sneer came to his lips as he regarded the woman, watching as she teetered on her feet when the rush came back to her head and she was forced to lean against the wall again, her eyes never leaving him.

"What did you do?" she finally snapped at him, blinking her eyes to remove the fogginess from her vision. Her heart was speeding within her chest, the erratic pace far faster than any of her nightmares had ever been able to induce.

"Oh, just a bump on the head," he sneered, getting a darker glare in return. Moving quickly, Savannah launched herself over the bed so that there was distance between them. He watched her casually, almost amusedly as she dodged him with every step that he took in her direction. She stumbled whenever she moved too quickly and she had to recover from a head rush. However amused he appeared, the game of cat and mouse was a game one could become bored of quickly and Loki was no exception. Darting forward too fast for her muddled mind to comprehend he pressed a forearm across her throat and slammed her back into the wall, making sure not to damage her head further so that she was still lucid enough to speak.

She gasped in shock at his speed and strength, her hands pulling at the leather and metal encased arm that was pressed against her trachea and cutting off her air. Loki watched her maliciously for a moment before he pulled his arm back just enough to free her airways, listening to her take in a large gulp of air.

"Now, can't we be civil?" he asked calmly, watching her hazel eyes flare as she attempted to push his arm away again. A frown of annoyance came to his face when he realized her actually had to fight against her to keep his forearm in place.

"You took me from my home and you believe I'll even consider being civil with you?"

"But that's not your true home, is it?" he asked tauntingly, removing his arm to instead grip her throat in his hand and draw his face closer to hers, watching the confusion cloud her eyes. She was still blinking, trying to fight off the effects of her head injury. His face was blurring in and out of her sight and she glared at him to try and get her vision to still. "How much do you know about your own life?" he finally asked.

"I don't care about the past," she hissed out, her nails biting into the skin of his hand as she tried to tear it off her neck. "Let go!" she yelled at last, pushing herself from the wall and slamming her shoulder against his chest, forcing him to put a distance between them for a second time. Loki laughed, actually laughed, as a broad smile split across his face at the strength she was able to force out when she needed to. It made him think back to the agent that was left on her bedroom floor with a broken nose.

"Such fight inside of you," he breathed out, watching as she stalked away from him, back around the bed once more. She always had the instinct to keep something between them, blocking him from getting too close. "It is refreshing, I admit."

"What do you _want_?" she demanded weakly in that moment, falling to lean back against the wall behind her as her hand came up to her head as it pulsed in pain repeatedly. "Who the hell are you anyway? Why did you take me?" Loki wasn't entirely annoyed by her questions and instead moved toward the door and knocked on it. She looked up in time to see him take something from the man that had been with him at her apartment before the door closed and locked again.

"I am Loki, a God of Asgard," he introduced, stepping toward her. When her muscles coiled in preparation to run, Loki stopped short and instead placed a bottle of water and two white pills on the small table beside the head of the bed, stepping back to the other side of the room again. Savannah looked to the small white pills for a moment before moving to kneel on the bed to reach across for them and the bottle of water. "I took you because of the past that you are so adamant on never remembering," he continued after a moment, tapping the blunt end of his sceptre on the ground as though he was bored.

"I don't remember my past, not consciously at least; I dream of it every night and with what I do see in my dreams I am positive that I would be better off _not_ remembering."

Savannah was looking away from his as she spoke and didn't see or hear him move toward the bed, placing his sceptre down and leaning forward to look at the exposed skin at the back of her neck. Her now dried hair was pulled up and her neck and shoulders were visible through the shirt she had chosen, revealing the small puncture marks at the base of her neck. Reaching forward, he had just barely been able to ghost his fingers over the scars before she had spun around to smack his arm away, standing up once more and glaring him.

"You do not wish to know where those came from?" he asked calmly, tilting his head to the side almost endearingly.

"No," Savannah forced out.

"Pity," Loki crooned, turning his back to her and heading back toward the door.

His hand was only just raised to knock when she spoke up again, her voice having lost much of its malice and instead sounded almost timid, "What is Asgard?" The smirk that spread across his face wasn't seen by her and he made sure to wipe it clear before he turned to look at her again, once more sitting on the bed.

"A city of the Gods," he began, remaining at the door so she didn't begin to panic again. "I am Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief and Lies. There are Nine realms, one houses this planet, which is referred to as Midgard by my people." It was surprising to see the actual interest she began to show on her face, but at the same time her caution and suspicion grew all the more. "You, however, are _not_ a Midgardian," he finished, watching her face carefully. It didn't seem to register to her just what he had said for a couple of seconds before the water bottle fell from her hand and rolled along the floor, water gushing from inside it. Loki watched the water for a moment, a trail left along the stone floor that simply jointed the other puddles and such on the damp floor. The only issue with having an underground base was that there was an unbelievable amount of water all over the place.

"That's a lie," she hissed out, rising to her feet. Had he been any other man, he would have applauded her for not wavering this time. "You say you're the God of Lying, well I can believe it."

Loki let out a breathy laugh and finally stepped away from the door, approaching the enraged woman carefully. "Oh, I'm not that one that has been lying to you. Have you never wondered before; you're much stronger than humans, you were able to survive being frozen for seventy years and you haven't aged a day past, I would assume, twenty five."

She shook her head, though, and held her ground before him with a firm frown on her face. "That proves nothing; Steve survived being frozen and is more than just stronger than the average human-"

"Of course, the super-soldier," Loki breathed, looking away from her as he nodded his head. "So you believe that what they did to him all those years ago was the same thing that happened to you?"

"There's nothing out there that I have to prove otherwise."

Loki hummed thoughtfully as he moved to stand behind her, his hand shifted the back of her shirt down to reveal all three pinprick scars. Her entire body was locked and tense from his proximity and touch, but she seemed to have learned the pointlessness of running away from him and simply stood as still as a stone and waited for him to move away. However, instead of backing off and giving her the space she desired, he stepped closer and wrapped an arm around her waist in a friendly gesture; the death grip that he had on her indicated something very different.

"Let's go out for a walk, shall we?" he asked, not waiting for denial or acceptance before walking toward the door and rapping on it four times, waiting a moment as it opened up to show Agent Barton waiting on the other side. "Go see if the doctor needs assistance," Loki ordered calmly.

"Yes, sir," Barton nodded before walking off, moving in the direction opposite where Loki was going. Savannah's entire body was as taught as a bow string, her hazel eyes dilated and her palms quickly coating themselves with sweat. She felt as though she was being walked down death row, taking in her final moments alive with her warden.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked, her fear back in her tone.

Loki glanced down at her from the corner of his eye, his arm still wrapped snug around her waist. If it wasn't for her inhuman strength and speed he wouldn't feel the need to keep a constant hold on her, but because she was stronger and faster than the other men he had acquired to work for him he didn't want to take the chance of her slipping away. He would really hate to have to go after her like a runaway stray. However, holding onto her allowed him to notice something that he hadn't the last time he carried her; she was extremely malnourished, her skin pulled tight over her bones with her ribs easy to locate beneath his arm.

"Hm, _that_ is a surprise," he taunted, smirking at the flinch that ran through her body when she repressed the urge to snap at him.

Before she even had the chance to think about trying anything, Loki had Savannah sitting before a computer screen with her file pulled up and before her. Her eyes zeroed in on the picture that was there, one that they had taken when she first woken up which resulted in her looking sickly and frail. She winced at the look of herself, never realizing before just how bad she had appeared when waking up from her icy coma. She tried to keep her eyes directed away from the words that had been typed up, but couldn't stop herself and was soon skimming through the information of her past.

"My birthday's on Halloween," she whispered to herself in amusement. She had only recently learned of the strange holiday from the owner of the café, one of the few people who know of her amnesia but not the reason behind it. As far as she knew, Savannah Soul had been in a devastating car accident and was in a coma for a year before recovering without a single memory.

"You were also, apparently, forty-eight when you went missing. However, I have never seen a forty-eight year old woman appear to be barely in her twenties," Loki said from beside her, leant forward with his lips only an inch from her ear. His breath was chilled against her skin and she had to force her body not to shiver.

It was true. An old photo of her birth certificate, recovered from a German military base, stated her birth date to be October 31st, 1894. Technically, she was one hundred and eighteen years old. Her mother had died on July 12th, 1928, and her father had never been registered. Apparently he had left her and her mother before she was even born, leaving her alone with her mom. Raising her hand to the screen she changed it to her history for the date after her mother had died. It was said her mother was murdered in her home.

Her entire arm was shaking as she slid her finger along the screen, moving the page along to where there was a collection of photographs. Some looked like diagrams, others looked like ruins of a room, a lab. The pain that had begun to ebb away because of the pills was returning to her head, making it ache. The feeling of Loki's breath against her ear and cheek was quickly fading into the back of her mind as she tapped on a folder that had been found on her in the German base, held in storage for decades.

The scrawled, messy English writing was hard to decipher through the scans but Savannah didn't let that deter her as she leaned forward to get a better look. Her heart began to speed inside her chest as the words that the German's had written began to become clear. _Demi-God. Fallen Angel. Cursed. Demon. Key. Blood. Heritage._

…_a bullet was shot into the subject's head at point blank range. The time elapsed for the bullet to be dislodged is 1:09:47._

She shot up from the seat before the computer so fast that it flew backward, Loki dodging it easily as he went after her when Savannah marched away from the screens, hell bent on getting as far away from those files as she could. He was able to get a hold of her arm before she was out of the room, however, and she was pulled to a harsh stop and spun around to face him. He looked deadly serious as moisture collected in her eyes, her mind conjuring up what it must have felt like to get shot in the head at point blank range.

"Tell me they're lies!" she screamed before he had a chance to say anything. "Live up to your title and lie!" Her hand shot out to hit him when he remained silent but he took hold of that wrist as well, preventing her from causing him bodily harm in her distraught state. "Tell me a lie, damnit!"

"That was a fake file," Loki finally said, watching as she only seemed to break down further. Releasing her hands, Savannah's body crumpled to the floor as her hands moved to her forehead, the forgotten memory still seeming to haunt her with the pain as she began to cry silently on the floor, the throbbing in her head returning full force. Taking pity on the woman, Loki placed a gentle hand on her head and softly uttered a spell under his breath, watching as she went limp and fell against his shins in sleep. Bending down carefully, he collected the slumbering woman into his arms, retrieved his staff from where he had lent it against the wall and breezed from the room as silently as a shadow in the night.

He hadn't known what her reaction to the file would be, but the hysterics had been on the list. Becoming angry at him again had had highest expectancy and in truth he would have preferred her screaming and throwing threats at him over crying and curling up on the floor. Then again, she believed herself to be a mortal woman that had only just awoken months prior, without a single thing to connect herself to the world. Her own mentality had abandoned her.

She did not deserve to be sectioned in with Midgardians, their disgusting habits and degrading ways far too low for her standards. If his assumptions were correct, and he was nearly certain they were, then Savannah Avery Soul was a very rare breed that had supposedly gone extinct decades before in a great war.

All he needed to do was find a way to free her god blood as well as further look into what had been done to her while she was in the labs. They had known she wasn't human and were doing strange things to her; hopefully they hadn't polluted her with their experiments. With all of the SHIELD passwords that he could get his hands on, Loki knew that the task would not be hard to accomplish.

Returning the woman to the bed she had awoken in, Loki was able to find one of the very select few of female workers and ordered her to go through Savannah's bag and set out new clothes for her when she woke. He stood in the doorway for a moment as the agent began to pull off the boots that Savannah was wearing for better sleeping comfort, placing them neatly beside the bed. Savannah's made no action to wake, the spell keeping her under deep. With how she was lying Loki could see the material of her shirt stretched over her visible ribs; he took a moment to examine their prominence before he spun on his heel and made his way down to where Selvig and the Tesseract were located.

**As I promised, a much more active chapter and a slight dusting of Savannah's past as well. Don't worry, she won't be spending the end of every chapter knocked unconscious in some way, I swear! :P**

**Please review, I loved reading the ones that I got for chapter one!**


	3. Invisible Cracks

**Invisible Cracks**

_Savannah was careful as she stepped into the front entrance to her mother's home, a smile playing on her lips as she looked around. The home was silent, something that was often the case. Her mother was a quiet person, more than often just curling up and reading a book with a cup of tea. Frowning slightly, Savannah realized that it was not as silent as it _should_ have been. There were several hushed voices that drifted down the stairs, drawing her attention. Her hazel eyes appeared to lighten into a golden colour as she listened more carefully, listening for who the voices belonged to._

_All men. The voice were all deep and masculine, something she had never greeted Savannah when she visited her mother. The older woman was not the most friendly person to the male gender; she had always told Savannah as a child that it was because her father was a very protective man and didn't like her around other men. It had become normal for her and she swore off male company completely after he disappeared from their lives._

_Savannah's eyes narrowed and she began toward the stairs, her footsteps silent on the hardwood flooring. It had taken her along time, but she had learned every single squeaky board, loose nail and creaking door. She had perfected the art of sneaking around her mother's home, from the very first to the permanent residence she lived in to date. The voices grew louder as she ascended the stairs, her ears catching no words but the tone of annoyance and upset. Still, she could not hear her mother._

_Worry and fear began to swell within her chest as she reached the top of the stairs, taking a moment to look around for any signs of who the men were. If they hadn't been making any noise she would not have even known they were there. Moving along the hall, she stepped to the right side to avoid loud floor boards, noticing that they were in the spare room on the left side of the hall._

"_You said she would be here," a male voice growled out in annoyance, the sudden shuffle of clothes telling her that he had moved. A moment later and he began to pace the length of the room. "Do you have any idea what will happen if we show up empty handed again? He will kill us!"_

"_We should just kill the woman and leave, her daughter will surly come to us to try and find her murderer," another voice suggested, heavily accented in German. Savannah felt her blood first run cold and then reach a boiling point, sending her into a fit of rage that prevented her from thinking straight. Turning the corner into the room, she caught sight of her mother tied down to a chair, her mouth wrapped shut._

_A man was pointing a gun to her forehead._

"_No!" Savannah screamed, the pitch startling the men inside the room. Her eyes had met those of her mother's, a soft blue, before the man with the gun started and fired. Alicia Soul's head snapped backward as blood painted her forehead, the bullet torn completely through and out the back. Savannah stood frozen in the doorway, her mother's body all she could see. Blood began to drip down her face, her blue eyes no longer holding the love that Savannah had always seen in them; they were blank, cold and lifeless._

_The first step that was taken in her direction from one of the men was the final snap to her control and she let out a shrill scream as she dove into the room to try and get to her mother's body. She couldn't think straight, she couldn't believe that her mother was dead and gone. She had already gone so long without her father; she could not have her mother lost to her as well._

_The men in the room rushed toward her, trying to stop her. In a savage attack, Savannah swiped so hard and fast at a man's cheek that his head snapped to the side, neck broken. As he fell his comrades seemed to finally realize the danger that they had put themselves in. Guns were drawn and Savannah was further blocked from her mother, the only thing that she wanted. Her once hazel eyes glowed gold as she glared at the men before her, moving to take a step toward them. Before she could make it a foot forward a thick steel cord wrapped around her throat, cutting off her air ways and preventing her from continuing toward the men aggressively. In a panic from being unable to breathe she threw her arm back and slammed her elbow into the man's nose, hearing the feature break as blood poured free._

"_Mother!" Savannah screamed one last time before the cold barrel of a gun was placed to her head. Unable to move faster than a fired bullet, her hand was still mid swipe when the shot was fired off, darkening her world. Her hand fell limp against the men's chest as her body crumbled, her golden eyes darkening again._

Savannah couldn't breathe. Woken by the inability to take in oxygen, she rolled immediately and fell to the floor on her knees, choking and gasping to try and get in air. The floor was cold and wet beneath her palms, but she pushed the thought from her mind as she shook violently, taking in greedy gulps of moist air. A splitting pain was rocketing through her skull, a feeling that she had not known before. The pain of being shot in the head, point blank.

She felt sick as she moved to rest her forehead against the cold floor, uncaring that she was getting dirt and water in her hair and on her heated skin.

How was she _alive_?

It made no sense! She had been shot in the head, she _died_, and yet she was walking around with a pulse, breathing and feeling, without a single sign that there had once been a bullet planted in her skull. Loki couldn't be right, he had to be lying. It was his way of life, it would come as more of a surprise to know that he was speaking truthfully than if he had decided to lie to her. _Deceit. Deceit. Deceit._ _Lie to me. Tell me a lie!_

Her mother. She had been murdered before her eyes.

Sobs began to tear up her throat as she collapsed completely to the floor. A woman who she did not even recognise filled her heart with love and agony; it was too confusing! It was easier to bare when her dreams had only been about people she didn't know personally, but now she was dreaming about someone that was her family and she couldn't even say that she remembered her.

Germans, it had been all the German's fault.

Jolting up to her feet she screamed in outrage as she threw her fist forward, slamming it into the stone wall. Instead of the exploding pain she had been expecting the brick crumbled beneath her knuckles, falling to the ground in shards and dust. She couldn't move, unable to draw her hand back to herself, as she looked at the damage she had done with shocked and appalled eyes.

_A lie. It's just another lie._

Even as the door opened behind her she couldn't bring herself to look away from where her hand was at least two inches into the solid brick of the wall. There was a slow pain that was beginning to pulse in her knuckles, but it wasn't enough to get her to move. The anger that had pushed her to shatter the bricks with her fist was the same anger that had consumed her in the dream. What of her bones? Were they broken, too?

Long, pale fingers slowly wrapped around her paralyzed wrist and pulled it from the brick, causing more debris and rock to fall to the floor. Her eyes finally moved up to where Loki was looking at her with resigned, calm green eyes. He gently uncurled her fingers, twinges of pain the only thing she could feel. The pain wasn't to the extent of broken fingers, but there were deep cuts in her skin that were beginning to ooze blood.

"Have I gained your trust in my words now?" he asked after a moment, looking into her eyes. They were no longer the average hazel of a human, but instead a vibrant golden iris that stood out around the black of her pupil. She didn't say anything in return but instead looked down at her hand, watching as the blood began to stop flowing, the cuts on her knuckles and fingers gradually disappearing.

A sob broke free from her throat as she thought back to the bullet. "What am I?" she gasped out, looking into his green eyes once again.

There was something akin to pity in Loki's eyes, watching her mentally break apart as the reality of what was truly happening to and around her finally hit home. "A god," he answered calmly, "You are not of this world, Savannah," he continued on, his other hand coming up to gently cradle her tear strained cheek. "Let me show you what you are truly capable of, let me return the power that these humans stole from you."

"What power?" she demanded weakly, for once not fighting against his touches. "I don't even know what I am, Loki. I remember broken pieces of my past, hardly any telling me something useful. I watched as my mother was murdered a minute before someone put a bullet in my head, I accidentally slapped someone so hard _I broke his neck_," she stressed out, watching the wonder that came to his eyes. There is only so much he can learn through what Hawkeye is able to obtain for him, the rest he must get from _her_.

The silence between them was thick, almost tangible, but there was no hostility toward one another. Savannah no longer felt the need to escape from Loki; he was the one that had revealed the truth to her. She was afraid of her own past and he was helping her to understand why—and she had assumed in the past that ignorance was _better_ for her.

Using the hand cupping her cheek, he guided her to look into his eyes. "All will become clear, of that I assure you. In time, all the knowledge that you seek will be within your grasp. You need only remember it."

"It's not that simple."

Shaking his head, Loki lifted her once injured hand. "All evidence you need is right before. Repressing the memories will not help you regain them; you must wish for it, will it to be."

Swallowing thickly, Savannah's eyes dropped from his to the floor at their feet. She found herself looking at the mud that was covering the bottom of his boots, the perfect stitch of his clothing and the metal and leather that covered what she could see of him. His skin was cold against her own, his fingers feeling like ice where they were wrapped around her wrist. The skin that covered her fingers was no longer burning with the pain of cuts, the coolness of his flesh soothing the sting. Not since she had first awoke had she wanted to remember so badly what she had forgotten; never had she felt so lost within her own body and mind then in that moment.

"What can I do to remember?" she finally asked, looking up to meet his patient green eyes once more. A sinister looking smirk spread to Loki's face in victory, but she held her ground and kept eye contact, letting him keep a hold on her face and wrist.

"It has already begun; you are starting to remember. With the memory of your mother's death you mind has begun the process of healing itself properly. That memory is the first crack in the dam that binds your mind, soon the entire thing will become littered with cracks until it can no longer hold."

Taking in a deep breath, Savannah nodded her head against Loki's hand, the chill of his skin on her heated cheek soothing. Her head hurt faintly from the crying, but she no longer felt the need to curl into a ball on the floor. Turning her face away she used her free hand to wipe at her cheeks, removing the evidence of tears. Loki released her other hand, letting her inspect the blood and dirt that was left behind from the wall.

"Let's not try that again, shall we?" he asked sarcastically, getting a bitter laugh from Savannah as she did her best to wipe her hand clean, marvelling at the unblemished skin.

Savannah took a moment to look over Loki as she had not before. The black hair, pale skin, green eyes and dark clothes were all things that were noticed right away. Looking closer, however, she was able to spot the symbol of a snake eating its own tail on the metal that strapped across his chest. She could see faint scars on his skin that were from many fights, both won and lost. Aside from the couple of pieces of gold on his chest and arms, he was mostly back and green with worn down metals adding to his attire. She couldn't stop herself from wondering if his hair would he stiff from a gel that held it in place, or greased and slicked back. Dare she admit it, he actually appeared sinfully attractive. There was a sense of danger about him that told her to stay away, but there was also an alluring quality that was hard to ignore.

There were other things that made her wonder, made her want to unwrap him and peel away the many layers. Not physical, however. No, she wanted to strip him of all the facades and masks, barriers and lies. There was so much deceit surrounding him that he appeared as a shell of who he truly was, all that made him Loki buried so far down that not even a shadow remained. Such darkness clouded his eyes, she wanted to bring the light and clarity to the surface.

Loki seemed to become unsettled by her hard stare because he finally turned away, heading toward the door. She watched him move, unsure of whether or not he expected her to follow after him.

"Collect your things, I will take you somewhere that you may get cleaned up," he ordered, though with less actual authority in his tone than with anyone else. It took less than two minutes for her to put all her things back in her bag and pull on her boots, fully prepared to leave behind that dreaded room. She did not want to wake in there one more time.

She jolted to a stop when a blinding pain shot through her temples, drawing Loki's attention back to her. Eyes closed and lips tensed into a thin line, Savannah held stalk still as she waited for the pain to ebb away. Voices whispered in her head and faces taunted her weak mind, there and gone before she could get a hold on them.

"_Why do we have to move _again_?"_

"_It's been long enough, we can't stay."_

"_But why?"_

"_People are going to notice that you're not aging, my little Soul, we need to move on. Just like your father said. It's too dangerous to stay."_

"It might not be worth it," Savannah said out loud, her hand moving to her throbbing head, as she opened her eyes to look to the ever watching God of Mischief, "If this is what it's going to feel like every time I remember something." Loki gave the slightest twitch of an eyebrow, not expecting her to have been remembering something as she stood still with a pained expression on her face. He had thought it nothing more than residue pain from the nightmare that had woken her in hysterics.

**Chapter three! I probably should have started this before the new school year was so close, but oh well. Updates are updates.**

**Thank you all so much for your tremendous reviews, they are so very much appreciated. I am also very glad that my editing is paying off; it's a pain in the butt but it's worth it!**


	4. Electric

**Electric**

Freshly showered and dressed in warmer, clean clothes Savannah followed after Agent Barton as he led her to where Loki kept disappearing to. He had told her that the God wanted to show her something, something magnificent. She was slightly worried, she would admit, about what it was that he wanted to show her. The last time he had shown her a surprise it was the file that she had never seen, telling her of a horror that had happened in her past and left her in a nightmare, unable to breathe. The sounds that were coming from the end of the hall grew louder and louder as they approached the end, an archway leading into a large chamber filled with machinery that Savannah did not recognize nor wanted to know about.

"Ah, there you are," Loki said as soon as they stepped through. He nodded to Barton in dismissal before stepping up beside the blonde woman with a large, almost frightening smile.

"You wanted to show me something?" she began, looking up to him. She felt much better around him now that she wasn't covered in dirt from rolling on the floor, crying. His smile only grew and he placed a hand on her back, his other arm outstretching toward the far end of the room, where there was a Plexiglas chamber with another machine inside it.

"This is the reason that I am here. I want you to see the truth, Savannah. A wonderful truth that you cannot achieve any other way," he was explaining, looking down to her as though he was an excited child. She almost smiled back at the enthusiasm as he walked her toward the contained room. "Dr. Selvig," he called, an older man looking up from his work at the sound of his name.

"Ah! Loki! I see that you've brought Ms. Soul with you, it's wonderful to meet you, dear," Selvig said as he stepped from the chamber and shook her offered hand, getting a hesitant smile in return. His eyes were the same as Agent Barton's, an abnormal glowing blue that didn't look human.

"It's nice to meet you," she offered in return.

Loki's hand on her back nudged her forward, moving her to follow after Selvig when he stepped into the chamber again, taking on the same excited persona that Loki had been wearing on their way there. He followed after them, but lingered near the back as he watched Selvig with the Tesseract. Savannah's eyes widened at the sight of the glowing blue cube that sat inside the machine, the center of focus. There was a strange sense of recognition at the sight of it, making her curious.

It seemed to pulse and glow when she was near it. Loki took notice of this and immediately moved forward, keeping a careful eye on the woman so that there was nothing he could miss. Her hazel eyes began to lighten again, but not to the same extent as they had been before. He reached for her shoulder, getting a jump in response as soon as he made contact with her.

"I've seen this before," she stated before he had a chance to say anything. Getting a look from Loki, she elaborated. "_Before_ the amnesia," she added on. "I just don't know exactly where, but I've seen this thing before." Reaching toward the glowing blue cube, Loki's eyes widened as a spark suddenly jumped from the Tesseract to her fingertips, drawing a startled gasp from her as she jumped back in pain, her eyes snapping shut and her hands moving to clutch her head.

The men and women that Agent Barton had helped him to collect continued to move around, ignorant to all that was happening inside of the woman's head. Loki watched as blue veins crawled along her left hand, beginning from where the spark had hit, and crawling up her arm. He reached out to touch her but, to his astonishment, there was a field of the Tesseract's power surrounding her that prohibited him from even nearing her enough.

"Savannah," Loki said carefully, drawing her attention to what the problem was. He tapped the field with his finger, causing a pulse of blue energy to ripple around the digit, repelling him.

"I…I don't-"

Never before had Loki seen someone react to the Tesseract in such a way; it was almost as though the power recognized her and desired to protect her. The next time he went to tap at the barrier it had vanished, leaving a mystified Savannah behind. Looking from Loki to the cube she took on large step _away_ from the alien technology with a critical eye.

"What is that thing?" she asked breathlessly, rubbing at her hand. It felt icy where the spark had made contact and tingled uncomfortably.

"The Tesseract touches everyone differently," Loki said as he looked at her with gentle, intrigued green eyes. "What did you see?" he asked softly, actually wondering. Her mind was so different from anyone else, he didn't even know if she would have the same reactions as the others. No one else had gotten a physical reaction as she had before.

"I didn't see anything; but I felt pain. _Tremendous_ pain." Her words were whispered and her face held fear as golden eyes fell down to the locked cube. It had stopped reacting now that she was standing further away, but she was still watching it as though it was going to jump forward and attack her at any given moment.

It had only been a second, but that one second was filled with more agony than in any of her dreams put together.

The suffocating feeling that enveloped her from being in the Plexiglas chamber was too much and she quickly turned on heel, exiting the space. Barton watched her leave with a critical eye, but Loki was only steps behind her and so he left her for the God to deal with. She didn't appear to realize that he was following her so as soon as they stepped into the tunnel that led from the large chamber to the room he had her in, Loki disappeared into the shadows, following after her through the darkness.

For any normal person, she would have appeared to be fine, but Loki could see the harsh lock of her shoulders and the fast stride she had taken up down the hallway. His green eyes watched her critically, as though she was a rare diamond that was freshly cut. He was silent as a ghost as he slipped from shadow to shadow, along the walls, in corners and directly behind the unsuspecting woman. But he was not going to do anything just yet. No, he would wait to see just what she was going to do, instead.

He was barely able to slip inside before she closed the door to the newer room she was in.

He was glad that he had remained in the shadows, because she surely would have tried to kill him if she knew he was there. As soon as the door was closed she turned toward the washroom and pulled her shirt over her head as she was walking. The dark colour had concealed what had been occurring beneath the material. His eyes widened at the blood that had smeared along her back, oozing from what had once been scars from needle marks. Striking blue veins were visible through the faint blue bruising that he had seen while looking through her file, but they had been _scars_. Now looking as fresh as the day she would have received them, blood poured from the small wounds down her back, staining the back strap of her once white bra red.

Rushing into the bathroom and snapping on the light, Loki was forced to linger behind because of the lack of shadows, watching as she twisted around to look at her back with fear in her eyes. She paled at the sight of the blood before rushing over to the rack with the towels, ripping one off and wrapping it around herself hastily to cover up the bleeding injuries. The red steadily soaked through the white, revealing to Loki just how badly she was bleeding.

"Why are they not healing?" he decided to ask, giving away his presence. She tensed, but did not turn around. If anything she seemed to steel herself against doing that and instead kept her back turned toward him and the towel wrapped about herself as a shield.

"I don't know," she finally managed to say, her words just as tight as her grip on the towel. Stepping forward, Loki was as silent as a serpent, but was still able to detect a change in Savannah as he neared her, as though she still knew that he was getting closer. Once he was close enough he was able to see that there was a rise of bumps along her skin.

"These three are not bleeding," he commented in interest, reaching forward to caress his finger along the three needles marks at the base of her neck that made up a vertical line.

"Those didn't hurt, either," she added on, fighting against another shiver as his fingers continued to caress her skin. While Thor had fought and practiced with weapons endlessly, Loki had kept to the books and didn't often train in combat, though was still highly skilled because of his quick mind, and therefor left him with much softer hands. A trait that had left him with snickers and insults following him around in Asgard, but he noted now that Savannah's body seemed to quite enjoy the smooth texture of his skin.

"Let me see your back."

And just like that, all of the tension had snapped right back into place and she took a sharp step forward with a snap of 'no'. Loki's hand remained in the air, where the slope of her neck and the top bone of her spine had once been beneath it, before he reached forward and took a firm hold on the top hem of the towel before giving on sharp tug, pulling both the towel and the woman inside of it back toward him.

Shrieking in surprise her hands immediately released the towel to instead seek purchase on something that would keep her up, the sullied material fell away as she fell into Loki, wanting to grab hold of him for support and slap him across the face all at once. Instead, she settled for attempting to right herself as Loki was trying to get a clear view of her abused back, blood leaking from the eight puncture wounds constantly.

"I have to stop the bleeding," Loki said, but she didn't seem to care and instead continued to throw a fit to try and escape him. Retaliating, he took a firm hold on the pony-tail of long golden hair and _pulled_. Instead of getting the second shriek that he had been expecting, she was deadly silent and her body froze more solidly than a block of ice. "I need to perform a spell."

"Spell? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You forget that I am a God?" Loki asked egotistically. "It is a healing spell; if you continue to bleed it could become problematic," he continued, pushing her head forward to get a clear view of her back.

"I don't care what you are right now, let me go!" she finally screamed, spinning around and punching his square in the chest. Loki had expected to feel a pressure and perhaps even a bit of air push from his lungs; instead, he found himself thrown completely from the bathroom and was on his back on the bedroom floor, a bewildered and confused woman standing where he had once been with fear and awe in her eyes. The air had been forced completely from his body, leaving him winded for a moment as he regained himself. "I'm sorry," was the first thing that came from her mouth, the words breathy and shaken.

Loki pulled himself back to his feet, but instead of looking angry, he looked absolutely thrilled.

"Extraordinary," he breathed, looking almost wild with his green eyes intense and his black hair slightly mussed from his travel through the air and collision with the ground. "However, you really must keep still for this," he added on after a moment. Savannah was still in immobile shock when her arms were taken a hold of from behind, forced to spin around so that her back was once more to Loki, leaving her facing—

Loki?

Her entire body was telling her to fight against him, but she found herself unable to move as she looked into the identical face of the man that was also standing at her back, leaving her locked in place between the two Lokis. The second Loki appeared to be a complete twin, right down to his fascinated facial expression as he looked down at her. His hands were cold against her arms as the first Loki, the original Loki, began to whisper words that she didn't understand as his fingers grazed her back.

"Stop," she whispered desperately, holding the eyes of the man before her. Was it real? Was _he_ real? The chanting continued behind her, not even a falter in pronunciation of his words of the strange language. The throbbing pain of the needles sites in her back dulled to a sting, causing her to arch her back in shock and try to get away from the changing feelings. "Stop!"

And it did. All at once, the pain, the chanting and all other movement in the room ceased. The Loki before her sneered briefly before he disappeared in a wisp of black, green and gold smoke. She jumped at the sudden display of magic, an otherworldly science that her mind could not quite fathom just get. Her reaction caused her to slam back against the original God, his hands taking up the placement of his clones.

Loki had effectively stopped the bleeding in her back with a healing incantation, but he had no healed them as the incantation was meant to. The injuries were still there, looking fresh and painful. Blood still covered her back, both moist and dry, and Loki frowned at the eight injuries, desperate to know what had created them. There was only so much that he was able to discover when she did not remember and Hawkeye's blocked codes were slowly becoming more and more useless.

"Feel better?" he asked, his breath whispering along her ears.

"What did you do?" her voice trembled along with her body.

"I stopped the bleeding," he answered simply, turning his head toward her slightly and causing his nose to brush her ear, the feeling of his skin against her own made her fight against flinching. "I will leave you to clean up," he declared suddenly, disappeared just as quickly and leaving Savannah stumbling in place in order to catch herself before she tipped backward because of her lack of support.

When she looked over her shoulder, Loki was gone. Stepping out into her bedroom proved empty as well, the God of Mischief telling the truth about leaving her. Swallowing thickly, she closed the bathroom door with a trembling hand and forced herself not to look into the mirror and see the stark red blood that would cover her back. Stripping off her clothing for the second time, she leapt into the shower and immediately turned on the water to warm, refusing to look down at the liquid that was swirling red around her feet.

Loki found himself back inside the Tesseract chamber, watching the many Midgardians as they moved about with each of their own tasks. Though his eyes were on the mortals, his mind was on the woman he had left behind. Never before had the healing incantation he had used never repaired all damages done, and then there was why the three smaller scars hadn't reacted as the rest.

Why the Tesseract?

Why her?

What was she?

Leaning back where he was sitting, he looked up toward the ceiling as he tried to think of what it was that could have drawn a reaction from the Tesseract like that. He was still thinking over what Midgardian technology he knew about when a vicious chill ran down his spine and had him rushing from the room, snatching his sceptre as he passed.

**Hope you all liked it! I've already got most of the next chapter written so that should be out soon, too. Just need to finish and edit **

**Please review! I love getting feedback**


	5. Give Me Strength

**Give Me Strength**

Groaning in pain on the floor of the bathroom, Savannah leaned her head against the wall of tiles beside her. Her eyes were closed, wrapped in nothing but a towel she was completely oblivious to everything that was happening outside of her own head. The cold feel of the tile was a distant comfort against her forehead, but it was also barely felt through the fog that was filling her mind, flashes and voices the only thing taking in her attentions.

_The screams that tore from Savannah's throat when unheeded as she thrashed against the thick leather straps that bound her in place, people moving around her. Her feet tried to kick out at the people that were setting up the machinery around her, a gag soon forced in between her teeth to silence her. She tried to bite at them, but they were quick and she couldn't move enough._

"_Is it ready?"_

"_Yes, sir."_

_The German voices made her throw herself around harder, snapping her head from side to side and pulling at her binds as hard as she could. Never had she found something stronger than her, but she couldn't get herself freed this time. A hand caressed her cheek almost lovingly, drawing her attention as her demonic golden eyes glared up at him with deadly intent, unable to see what he truly looked like in the darkness of the room._

"_Soon, my dear, we will walk with them together," the man said. Savannah wanted to scream at him, beat him down and tear him apart. It was entirely his fault. He might as well have been the one holding a gun to her mother's head, to _her_ head. "Let's begin, shall we?"_

_Savannah tried to scream at him to let her go, but it came out muffled and incoherent. As he moved away she followed him with her eyes, trying to figure out what he was going to do. She screamed anew as the table that she was strapped down on began to move and break apart. Two, two inch sections of metal disappeared from beneath her on either side of her spine, revealing the bared skin that was pale from years of no exposure to the sun. Her arms were still bound down, preventing her from moving anywhere and escaping._

"_Everything is prepared, sir."_

"_Commence with first injections," the man called. Savannah looked over to him in a panic, her golden eyes wide. The man that had hovered above her was standing beside a device that was holding a strange cube that was emitting a vibrant blue light. She almost marvelled at how beautiful it looked before there was a white hot pain shooting through her back, tearing new screams from her throat, muffled by the gag. Four needles cut into her skin at an angle on either side of her spinal column, driving forward until they reached the bone of her spinal column. More straps were attacked to her arms, legs and stomach as she began to fight and pull, trying to get away from the agonizing pain and almost breaking the thick needles from the movement._

_Clear tubes filled with glowing blue liquid pumped forward from tanks, the colour transferring to Savannah's skin. Tears coursed down her cheeks as the blinding pain began to evolve, feeling more like there was acid flowing through her bones. Blood began to fill her mouth and she screamed her throat raw, chocking on the red liquid. And then it all stopped. The machine monitoring her heart flat lined, the injections slowed until they ceased altogether, blood staining the withdrawing needles._

"_She's gone," one of the scientists said, looking up at the dark haired German that he was getting orders from._

"_Just wait," he purred, watching the still body of the woman. Her head had lolled to the side as she went limp, blood beginning to seep free from the gag to slide down from the corner of her mouth. Everyone in the room waited with bated breath, watching the dead body of the female that they had acquired. With a sudden, violent jerk Savannah's heart kicked back into action, pumping at a rapid pace that would have killed any other person on Earth. Her chest heaved as she took in rapid intakes of air, the equivalent of hyperventilation, with blood continuing to stain her gag._

"_Session one was successful, Mr. Schmidt!" the leading scientist called, looking up to the smirking man._

"_As I can see, Dr. Zola. Take her back to her room and prepare for the next session."_

"Savannah!"

The harsh grip on her shoulders pulled and pushed, shaking her body as she screamed with her head thrown back in pain and fear, her voice echoing throughout the bathroom as Loki tried to pull her from her own psychotic fear of a past she didn't entirely remember or understand. She sounded like she was being murdered. When her eyes flew open they were a harsh gold, looking brighter and more dilated than ever before, a simple ring of yellow around the edge of her iris.

"Savannah," he said more cautiously, keeping a careful watch on her face as she was looking at him with a blank stare, not completely seeing him even as her eyes held his. "Savannah?"

"Germans," she finally mumbled, her eyes still unfocused. "Germans. The Germans. Tesseract? The cube, so blue-"

"Savannah!" Loki yelled again, shaking her with one more sharp snap, throwing her head back with the movement and cutting off her ramblings. Her lips remained parted, as though she was in shock, as she continued to stare up at the ceiling. Her body felt like live flames beneath his hands, hotter than he had ever felt before. "Look at me, Savannah," he ordered calmly, knowing that she could hear him. She whimpered, petrified.

"No more sessions, it hurts," she began sobbing, "no more, no more, no more," she started chanting softly. Loki decided that it was probably best not to use the harsh approach, and instead released her arms and gently took hold of her face, cradling it in his hands.

Tears were falling down her cheeks as she looked blankly forward, her unseeing eyes shining with liquid. "All is well, Savannah," he assured softly, stroking at the hot skin of her cheeks to remove the tears. "See me now, Savannah, I am here. You are here, safe from the Germans." The effect seemed to be what he needed as she blinked slowly, as though she was getting ready to fall asleep, forcing out more tears. "Savannah?" he asked quietly one last time, getting a sob as his answer.

"I remember the Tesseract," she breathed out, keeping her eyes closed as she trembled. Even though her body felt like it was on fire to him, she felt like she was locked inside a shell of ice. "The Germans…they _injected_ me with it."

Injected?

"It hurt! Oh, god, it hurt," she babbled, her body beginning to tremble under his hands. Knowing that he had to be gentle with the distraught woman, Loki shushed her softly and drew her away from the cold tile walls, lifting her off the floor in a fast, careful motion. Because of his Frost Giant heritage, he had always had a cooler temperature to the other Asgardians, but with Savannah it was as though he was sticking his hand first in snow and then in a fire when he ended up touching bared skin.

With the shortness of the towel, there was _a lot_ of bared skin.

Bundling her shivering, dripping form in the blanket on the bed, Loki found himself looking down at the woman as though she was a complex puzzle that he was desperate to solve. Turning to leave, he was forced to a stop when her hand shot out surprisingly fast and caught his leather and metal encased arm, halting his movements.

"You won't hurt me, too, will you?

She sounded so much like a pathetic child that Loki almost scoffed at her, but when he looked down at her he saw the fear in her eyes that had been in his own as he looked up at his father, preparing to release his hold on the staff, ready to die. He had been petrified, but he had wanted more to be freed from the torment then to give up because he was afraid. With Savannah, she wanted to be freed of a torment that the mankind she had lived with placed upon her; seeking refuge in someone from a different Realm.

"I give you my word of honour, I will not harm you," he swore, meeting her hazed golden eyes. Her expression softened before her eyes drifted closed as her mind surrendered to rest. Removing her slackened hand from his arm, Loki gently laid her down and made sure to keep the blanket wrapped tightly around her. The underground base was already cold, the water clinging to her skin wasn't going to help.

Pulling back and preparing to leave, he halted at the last moment and looked down at her eyes. They were moving beneath her closed lids, dreaming. Looking over to the door of her room, he knew that he would not be needed for the Tesseract project at the time and sat himself gently on the edge of her bed, the mattress dipping under the weight of his body and the armour he was wearing.

He had not passed into another being's dreams for a very long time; he had learned the spell when he was still a beginner and had accidentally walked into one of Thor's dreams and felt too scarred to ever try again afterword. Reciting the incantation, he moved to hand to press his index and middle fingers against her forehead, insuring the it was her dream that he moved into, and not someone else nearby. He could feel his mind being pulled into hers and prepared himself for whatever was to come.

_The first thing that Loki realized was that he felt like his entire body was filled with lead, weighing it down until he could no longer move. This was how Savannah felt? She barely had the energy to open her eyes, the sounds of her door being opened causing a bloom of fear to begin in her chest, her blood running cold. He simply watched, waiting. A shudder passed through his physical body when he realized she was wearing a gag, forcing a memory of his own sewn lips into his mind._

_A whimper of fear issued from Savannah's mouth directed the man's attention back to her and what she had become so scared up. Light filled the disgusting room that they had her in, lying on her stomach with her head directed away from the door, her bloodied back exposed. He could feel her fear, her anguish, as though it was his own and he found himself trembling with her as footsteps rushed around the bed until a form knelt before her._

_The blue uniform wasn't easily missed and Loki found himself glaring. _The super soldier.

_Savannah whimpered again as he reached forward and gently removed the gag from her mouth, pulling it away to reveal the raw skin that had been left behind because of her trying to rub it off, as well as the dark stains of blood on the cloth and her skin from screaming her throat to tatters._

"_It's alright," he assured softly as he placed a soothing hand against her matted hair. "I'm here to save you, you're safe."_

"_No," she moaned softly, beginning to quiver with fear. The one word was raw and broken._

_Captain America disappeared from her view, the sounds of movement still filling the room before a blanket was draped over her back. She cried out weakly as her injection sites were aggravated, the man that had caused it whispering apologies before he lifted her gently, keeping the blanket wrapped around her torso carefully, and cradled her in his arms._

_She was trying so hard to keep her eyes open, but they fell closed of their own accord several times, forcing both she and Loki to miss many of their surroundings. It was disturbing for him, to feel the entirely of her pain as his own, her fear and depression. He had not seen his mother killed before his eyes, birth mother or not, and would not know the anguish of it. At least, he had not until he felt through Savannah what it was like; this was one of the drawbacks or dream walking. Especially when it was a nightmare._

"_They'll kill you," Savannah was able to choke out a short while later._

"_I'm a soldier, ma'am, it comes with the territory."_

_Savannah's eyes burned with tears as she gasped for air, her hand moving to clutch at the soldier's uniform weakly, blood smearing on the blue. Her hand looked like the colour of snow against the stark red on her fingertips, stirring something inside of Loki. Other American soldiers rushed alongside, barely even visible to Savannah as she looked passed the Captain's shoulder, to where the building was beginning to grow smaller in the distance, explosions and smoke turning everything dark. Tears fell down her cheeks as she blinked, before her eyes fell closed one last time and she went limp in Steve Rogers arms._

Pulling his hand back, Loki opened his eyes to look down at the surprisingly peaceful look on Savannah's face. Her hair had begun to dry against her skull as he sat beside her, a longer amount of time passing than he had expected while he was inside her mind. Blinking carefully, he became aware of a cold moisture on his cheeks.

Drawing himself up to sit straight, he lifted the same hand that had once pressed to Savannah's forehead, brushing his unusually warm fingers across his cheek and holding it before his eyes. Water glistened on the tips, a drop falling from his chin after it had cascaded over his high cheekbones and down his cold skin.

Tears? He was actually _crying_ for this woman?

Scoffing, he bolted up from his sitting place as he wiped his cheeks clean, leaving the sleeping woman on the bed. Snatching his sceptre as he left the room, Loki felt a shudder run through his body at the thought of what he had seen in her dream. Her _memory_. There had been red all along the sheets of the bed she was lying on, nearly naked atop it as they stripped her of her clothing to expose her back. They had stripped her of nearly all of her sanity, her modesty and her memory.

_Weak_.

Loki growled as the thought forced itself into his mind.

_Pathetic. She's making you weak._

She herself is strong, Loki thought as he paused in the shadowed corridor. Not only physically; she is able to stand tall when she does not even recognize her own face.

Looking back over his shoulder, Loki wondered just how useful she could be. He didn't know if she held dark feelings inside of herself because of what SHIELD withheld from her, but it would be fairly easy to manipulate her emotions into hatred for the organization that had kept her past from her; a past that she had every right to know about, especially if it included that fact that she wasn't human.

Sneering, Loki turned back around and stepped toward his plans for the future.

**I know, this took a bit longer to come out than I thought, I'm sorry! But, you got more info on Savannah and there was a little bit of connection between her and Loki, that is my apology! :P**

**Please review, they are always so very much appreciated!**


	6. Taint Me With Shadows

**Taint Me With Shadows**

Loki was not worried per say, he was—however—growing quite anxious when Savannah did not awaken for hours after he had stepped in on her dreams. She stirred, she dreamt, she slept; not once did she awaken. He blamed it on impatience and not concern for the woman, he refused to believe that even after all that had happened he could still _feel_.

He didn't dare step in on her dreams again.

_Sentiment,_ he though bitterly, sneering down at the sleeping form lying on the bed. She was still bundled up in the blankets and towel, her hair having dried long before. _Disgusting. _He hated emotions, he hated the feeling that rushed through his body when he saw the bared skin of her shoulder when she had rolled in her sleep. He despised his own desire to caress her long, pale neck when she craned it. Emotions were wretched things that he had thought long since banished; no, he had only hoped they had been ripped from him when he was falling through space. Instead, they had simply been shadowed over.

Sneering down at the sleeping woman, his hand twitched to touch the smoothness of her skin. Would it still burn as it had when he found her in the washroom, cowered on the floor? He tried to reason that it was only knowledge seeking as his hand finally reached out and ran the tips of his chilled fingers along her neck, but he was the lie smith, he could tell whenever someone was lying to him—even he himself.

"Wake up," he snapped before he realized he had opened his mouth to speak. She did not stir at his words, remaining completely and blissfully unaware of his presence above her. "Wake up, I say," he demanded, louder this time, and reached down to wrap his long fingers around her arm, jerking her. Still, she did not wake. "Cursed woman! _Awaken_!"

A bolt of what felt like liquid fire suddenly shot down Loki's spine, beginning from where his hand touched Savannah's arm and travelling up the appendage to his shoulder. He couldn't release her, however, and was left to watch as glowing golden eyes snapped open, hazed and unfocused. It took him but a moment more to recognize what it was that he was feeling; magic. Pure, unrestrained, unharnessed and _overwhelming_ magic. It was a power that flowed within her blood—she had more than just learned magic, she was born with it in her veins.

Choking on a gasp, Loki fell to his knees beside the bed, seeing Savannah's eyes follow the movement. She didn't appear to be consciously aware of what she was doing to him. Her power was beating down on him like a thousand Mjolnirs breaking into his bones at once, invisible forces that took the very breath from his being. Thor had used the hammer to subdue him before, disgustingly amused at the sight of Loki struggling to lift the weapon, but never without consciously knowing.

"Sa-Savannah," Loki gasped, looking up in desperation, praying the woman to come back to her own mind before she tore him limb from limb.

The call of her name had more effect to awake her fully than his violent shaking had without her name at all, drawing forth a blink from her as her golden eyes focused and darkened slightly. There was still a ring of the rich colour around her pupil, but the rest turned back to the hazel that everyone had become used to when seeing her. The sudden withdrawal of power left the God gasping, his hand squeezing her bicep in a force that would have snapped a human bone in seconds.

"Ah!" she hissed in pain, her hand shooting up to clasp his and try to unwind his fingers from around her limb. "Loki!" she snapped, failing to free herself. His heavy breathing was the only sound that filled the room, causing fear to fill Savannah. Waking to the God of Mischief clinging to one's arm was not easy, especially when the God was _strong_ and refused to let go. "Let _go_!" Her fingers finally pried her arm free, pushing herself over to the opposite side of the bed in fear.

Confused. She was absolutely confused.

"Such power," Loki finally ground out, his head still lowered and his face hidden away. "Such _untainted_ power."

In all of the realms that he had been to, not once had Loki met someone that dealt in magic that was not marked in some way. The way in which a person learned magic left a type of print on them, and their power. But Savannah had never been taught to control the magic in her blood, raised as a human as she was, and so there was no print, to taint, on her power. It was riveting.

Loki felt as though he had just stumbled upon the one person that could turn the tables in his favour, no matter who the humans recruited. With her aiding him, he could very well conquer Earth.

Raising his head, his striking emerald eyes met her confused and bewildered gold and hazel ones. "Just what are you?" he asked, more to himself than to her. Every time he thought that he may have a hint of what she could be, another piece of a puzzle he had not known needed to be solved appeared, throwing all of the others connections astray.

"I don't know," she whispered, timid and withdrawn. Gasping, Savannah tried to move back even further when Loki rose onto the bed on one knee, leaning toward her and reaching for her arm again. The God was faster, however, and drew her back gently. It was a sharp contrast to the bone breaking hold he had been using before, and Savannah was hesitant to lower her guard so soon.

She did not have much say in the matter of keeping away as Loki drew her back toward him, sliding her bare form and the sheets that covered her across the bed until she was seated directly in front of him. Her free arm held the sheets and her towel to her body, curling her legs up to her chest to try and stop anything from shifting and revealing things that were meant to remain private.

Loki would enjoy being the one to taint her.

"What else do you remember?" Loki asked gently, surprising Savannah into silence as she looked into his shocking eyes.

"American Soldiers," she stuttered out, never looked away from his alluring, emerald orbs. "They saved me from the Germans."

"No more on what you are?"

"My back healed fairly quickly, unlike when I came in contact with the Tesseract here," she answered after a moment, blinking slowly as her mind tried to process what it had seen only short moments before. "The scars there now are all that was left behind; the Americans didn't seem as surprised as I would have imagined, however."

"They knew," Loki mumbled to himself, looking away from her eyes to direct a glare at the bedspread.

"There was a man that said 'he truly was walking among gods'." Her voice sounded choked, unsure. "So, you weren't lying. I…I'm actually not human?"

"I have not lied to you, unless you wished it," Loki answered, thinking back to her begging him to lie so that she could feel better, so that she could live with the false belief of being human for just a short while longer.

"Will you lie to me again?" she asked darkly, her eyes downcast. Loki blinked slowly, returning his attentions to her. Freeing his hold on her arm that he had used to pull her along, he brought his hand up to her cheek, actually surprised when she didn't flinch away from the contact. His long, elegant finger stroked along the pale skin of her cheek, caressing the warm flesh almost like a lover would.

"I will not lie to you," Loki said softly, leaning down so that they were face to face and she wasn't straining her neck to look up at him anymore. Her eyes looked so beautiful and unnatural that Loki almost couldn't look away from them, the golden colour more vibrant than the halls of Asgard, the golden city itself. He could see the muscles working in her jaw and throat as she swallowed, her eyes never once straying from where he held them with his own. "You can trust me, Savannah," he hushed softly, stroking her high cheekbone with the pad of his index finger as his thumb ran below her bottom lip.

"Can I truly?" she asked meekly, unsure. She was still greatly uneasy around the man, and the lack of clothing wasn't exactly building her confidence, either. Loki seemed to take notice of the death grip that she had on the sheets and almost reluctantly pulled his hand away from her wonderfully warm, smooth skin. Savannah's body instinctively relaxed once he had put distance between them, but she jumped when he quickly flicked his wrist at her, expecting him to have intent to harm her.

"I hope they are to your liking," Loki said as he turned to depart, snatching the sceptre as he passed it on his way to the door. "Take a couple of minutes to collect yourself and then please meet me in the Tesseract chamber."

The door was already closed behind the god before Savannah had a chance to wonder what he was speaking of. It was only when she shifted and felt material move along her skin with the change that she looked down in shock at the new attire that had appeared on her body. She doubted that she would ever be able to be comfortable around Loki's use of magic, especially when it was all still so new to her.

The shirt that he had given to her was something that she shouldn't have been surprised to see; a black and green skin tight shirt that had gold accents. The sleeves went to her wrist, a perfect fit, and had wisps of gold stretching from the hem, almost like snakes dancing on her skin. On her right upper arm there was a snake that wrapped around the entire circumference, the mouth biting the tail when they met up at the front of her arm.

"I've seen this before," she mumbled to herself curiously, reaching out to caress the snake. It felt silky beneath her fingers, unlike the softer, almost cotton feel of the rest of the shirt. She was sure that if it had been something bought at a store that it would be of the finest materials and more than likely cost more than the apartment that SHIELD had given her would for a month.

Slipping her legs free from the sheets, she looked down at the pants that he had created and almost twitched at the sight and feel of leather. The leather was thick and rough, not like what she had seen people wearing as their coats, the material shining in its fake way. She recognized certain aspects of the clothes were similar to Loki's; such as the metal pattern that was on her thigh, something she noticed beneath Loki's coat when he had shown her the file SHIELD had on her.

Looking to the floor at the end of the bed, a pair of boots sat waiting.

Loki was waiting for her when she stepped through the last arch in the tunnels, miraculously remembering where the chamber was that the Tesseract was held. There weren't any people around him, as there usually was when he was in the chamber, and he motioned her over as soon as she stepped into the room. It didn't go unnoticed by Savannah when his eyes drifted over her form as he took in her modified Asgardian clothing. He had clearly gone off of his own style to make the clothing that she now wore, but she couldn't find it in herself to have a problem with that fact.

"Are you pleased with the clothes?" he asked, surprising her.

"I am, actually," she admitting, knowing better than to try and lie to the liesmith. "The material is like nothing I have ever felt before," she continued on, her fingers playing with the hem of her sleeve, just above the gold designs.

"The materials that are on this planet are horrendous," Loki said as he looked over to where the people he had touched with the sceptre were working away diligently, trying to finish their work as quickly as possible. "I have a special dislike for what they refer to as jeans," he finished, directing his attention back to Savannah. He was taken off guard to see her amused gaze.

"And I thought that I was out of place in this world, in this time." He wasn't sure how to respond, but the reminder that she had been alone in her race while on Midgard came back full force. He had grown up believing that he was an Asgardian—even though he knew all along that he was different—while she knew that she was not human but yet was forced to live among them.

"You are a puzzle," Loki said suddenly, stepping up toward her and causing the smile to drop from her face as she became wary again. "I am determined to answer every single unsolved question about you, Miss. Soul, and believe me; I am very good at puzzles." As he spoke, his hand crept up along her spine, drawing a shiver from her in the process, before his fingers reached the three odd puncture scars and his tapped at them with his fingertips. "I admit that I look forward to the challenge."

Loki's fingers traced along her skin, gliding up to the base of her neck and gently raking his blunt nails along her skin and pulling forth another shudder from her as her head tipped back ever so slightly and her eyes seemed to grow distant. She was absolutely _revelling_ in the contact, and that was something that Loki was sure to file away inside his mind for later use. Using his added height advantage, he was able to lean his face over her upturned one and smirk devilishly.

"So pliant you are, Savannah," he purred, pushing his long fingers up through her hair and pulling her face closer to his. Only minutes before she had been trying desperately to free herself from him, but she had also feared him hurting her at the time. Loki sneered internally as he assessed the situation they were in now; he could very well kiss her if he truly desired and she would not fight against him.

Without even realizing it, her body was caving physical contact with another being. Someone that she couldn't crush accidentally.

Tipping his head down, Loki barely allowed a ghost of a caress along her lips with his before he had pulled back, slowly releasing her body and letting her stand on her own once more.

"Come," he ordered, stepping away from where they had lingered and moving through the room. Savannah, still dazed, didn't even put up a fight and instead followed after him silently, her eyes glazed over as her mind slowly came back to herself. She felt like she was walking through a fog for a moment, the sounds of the workers distant and the green and black of Loki's garb the only thing she could actually focus on in front of her.

It was when she realized that he was returning her to the chamber of the Tesseract that she became fully aware of herself and her surroundings once more. Biting out a sharp 'no', she halted in place and turned to leave. But Loki, anticipating the reaction, wrapped an arm around her waist as fast as a striking snake and hauled her forcibly into the Plexiglas room. The workers didn't even give a second glance toward them when Savannah howled in outrage, trying to fight free.

"Enough," Loki hissed, irritated that she had regained her demeanour before he was able to get her into the chamber. "You wish for my help and this is it, if you do not cease fighting me force will be used," he warned darkly, feeling her continue to strain against his hold but no longer outwardly fighting him. Still doubtful that she would remain still, Loki released his hold on her. She immediately darted as far from the Tesseract as she could, but remained inside the chamber so as not to annoy the God further.

"I am not touching that thing," she snapped, her eyes meeting Loki's and just screaming of challenge. It reminded him of when she had first met him inside the room he locked her in, fighting against him and refusing to allow him to get within a couple of feet of her. This time, it was a look that promised death if he even tried to come within a meter of her while holding the Tesseract. The gold of her eyes reminded him of the angered cats on Earth that he had read about, glaring with yellow hued eyes before they pounced.

"The power of the Tesseract is inside of you; you are connected to it-"

"It could kill me," she snapped, her eyes narrowing further. "I don't care if there's a connection, that thing tore open wounds that have been closed for decades."

Loki moved up to her in a fluid step forward, reaching for her arms with long, gentle fingers. She didn't flinch, but her muscles tensed for a split second in case he was planning on moving her closer to the azure coloured cube. "You must have your trust in me, Savannah. I have only your best interests in mind, please, you must believe that. These humans only ever hid this from you, tried to hunt you down and use you. I will never do that, Savannah, I'm only trying to show you what you are truly capable of."

"What I am capable of on my own or with the Tesseract?" she asked, looking up at him with vibrant eyes. Loki's eyes lingered on hers, his hands still loosely resting on her biceps.

"Your capabilities seem to have been pushed down into a less dormant state; I believe that the Tesseract could unlock what _you_ are capable of," he answered carefully, his hands sliding from her arms to rest in the swoop of her waist, made more prominent from wide hips. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and leaned forward, unknowing of Loki's tensed muscles as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. It was in that moment that he noticed she was shaking. "Are you so afraid?" he asked quietly, looking to her golden blonde hair.

"The last time I was near the Tesseract wasn't exactly pleasant. It hurt and it made me remember even worse pain," she mumbled against his chest.

**Sorry, I know it's been a while but I haven't had much time to work on **_**any**_** of my stories, which is like going through withdrawal for me. I love writing, and right now I hate school. **


	7. Weaving the Armour

**Weaving the Armour**

Loki stood before Savannah with the Tesseract in his hands, the glowing cube oddly warm, though it took on the appearance of illuminated ice. She half expected him to double over in pain as soon as he came into contact with the strange box like object, but he simply turned toward her and held it out with perfectly steady hands. Stepping up to her, she wanted to back away; she wanted to lash out at him to back him up; she watched that damned cube to disappear.

Switching the cube to one hand, he reached for Savannah's with the other. Her fingers twitched as she felt the strong urge to smack his hand away, but she pushed it down and let his long, pianist fingers wrap around her fragile looking wrist and draw her hand up toward the Tesseract. Loki could feel the tension in her arm as her hand approached the cube before he placed her palm gently on the side that he was not covering, its warmth immediately seeming to disappear. He watched, shocked, as blue veins appeared and travelled through her hand and up her arm.

Savannah tried to draw away at the feel of liquid fire running into her hand, she truly did try. The cube, however, seemed to have burned her into it, preventing her from pulling her hand away. There was a collision of hot and cold as Loki laid his hand atop of hers, leaving her trapped between godly strength and some immensely powerful—foreign—force. The Tesseract felt like ice against her palm, all of its heat having transferred to her hand and arm and continuing up her body; the heat left Loki's hand feeling like a corpse's against the back of her palm.

"Stop," she gasped out, moving her body back even as she continued to hold onto the cube. She lifted her free hand and pushed at Loki's arm, willing him to pull the cube away when she found she didn't have the strength to do it on her own. "Stop. Stop! _Stop!"_

Almost violently, Loki pulled the cube back and placed it in its metal cradle. Savannah, with nothing left to keep her up, fell to the ground in a gasping heap. Her knees hit the ground with a crack like sound. Her shoulders were shaking and she looked as white as the snow of Jotunheim. With golden eyes wide, even as she looked as weary as a frightened child, Loki crouched before her to reach for her hand.

The palm looked as though she had been holding a burning stone in her palm, only the burns were not red and angry in appearance, but blue like dead flesh.

_Like a Jotun's flesh_, Loki dimly thought and hating the comparison his mind conjured up the entire time.

Almost sickeningly sweet, he lifted her hand and blew the breath of Artic air over the burn, causing her to gasp and shudder at the feeling. Her fingers moved to curl up and try to protect her palm, but he laced his fingers through hers from the back, keeping them open and her palm revealed. Leaning down over her hand the Prince whispered a spell over her flesh, the wisp of his breath tickling her palm as the burns slowly began to recede until there were only traces of intricate blue veins.

"You-you said it wouldn't hurt," she gasped out, her voice hitching—Loki could see the shining of tears in her eyes. Tugging on her healed hand, he drew her up against him gently, almost lovingly. Blinking in surprise, she leaned against him as he began to run his long fingers through the soft strands of her hair.

"A regret putting you through pain," he mumbled softly.

Confusion swirled in her mind, but at the same time it felt so good to be close to another person after so long of only distance from other people. After so long of nothingness—left frozen beneath the water and awaking to a confusion, forgotten world. Loki's cold body reminded her of that bone chilling feeling as she awoke, without a thought in her head, and yet it didn't make her feel fear as she had when she first woke in a new world. His cold skin was a pleasant relief to the burn that had spread throughout her body, out of the reach of his healing spell.

"You are a confusing man," she finally whispered. "Are you going to make me do that again?"

"I do not _want_ to force you, Savannah," he said, a contradiction of his behaviour when getting her to enter the room as it was. He had said he would use force, then. "I am trying to help you, remember?"

"Odd way of showing it," she rasped out. Pushing away from the God, she lifted herself on tired legs and looked down at her hand in strong concentration, almost as though she was trying to will away the strange veins that had been left behind. Marking her. Branding her.

Reaching forward, Loki gently took her hand in his with a tenderness that shocked her to the core. Frozen in surprise, she watched as Loki lifted her hand up to his lips. His mystic green eyes looked up to meet her golden ones before he blew a breath out across her blue palm; a sharp contrast to earlier, it felt like a dragon's breath along her icy skin and rocked her on her feet.

Trying to retract her hand only seemed to tug him forward, his body moving with her draw away, leaving his face inches from her own. She could see the lighter shades of green that flaked through his eyes, reminding her so much the emeralds that she had seen in rings or necklaces. It was hard not to think of the not-quite-a-kiss kiss that he had given to her before approaching the Tesseract chamber, and her chest seemed to tighten at the thought of it.

She shouldn't be having any such feelings, she knew. Stockholm Syndrome is what she believed her situation would be referred to should professional opinion come into play.

And yet, at the same time, her body craved Loki to the point that her mind couldn't fight it. Unlike the people that she was forced to surround herself with—Midgardians, as Loki called them—he himself was not human and could meet her strength for strength. She didn't crave any form of subjugation or look for someone that was stronger than her, but she did want someone that she knew wouldn't break at the slightest touch. The harshness of Loki was a reprieve from the bland, softened edges of the humans that she had to familiarize herself with.

She craved being around someone that actually had some kind of connection with her.

His other hand, cool through her clothes, dipped in the curve at the base of her spine. Before she had a chance to decide whether or not she liked the feeling, his lips moulded with hers. Savannah's entire body reacted, arching forward at the sensation to press her front flush against Loki's, his hand following the glide of her spine to draw her closer. Her hands lifted to find the creases in his clothing and armour, taking hold and pulling at him to attempt to bring him all the more tight against her body. Cold emanated through his clothes, from her very bones. Even though her mind did not remember the intimacies of her previous life, her body knew all too well what to do.

Her burned hand was released from his grasp a moment later, his now free hand lifted up to fist in her hair and tug at the strands. The hitch of her breath pleased him, but he had been hoping to get her lips parted. A second attempt, this time using a firm bite at her bottom lip, allowed him the access to her teeth and tongue.

Savannah jerked harshly on the armour he was wearing in retaliation, biting his tongue gently when it slipped over her bottom teeth. The sensations were nearly too much to bear; it had been a long time since she had kissed a man. She didn't know about her past, but she had been alone when it came to male companionship since awakening from her cold slumber.

With his hand in her hair, Loki was able to control her movements, angling her head the way that he preferred and allowing him to completely control and dominate the kiss. Savannah wasn't about to submit, however, and shoved at his chest to take him by surprise, throwing him back against the wall and breaking their contact all together. The wide green look in his eyes caused her to nearly smirk before she dove at him again, taking lead in the kiss as her nails raked along his neck and drawing angry red lines on his flesh.

Growling at her assault, Loki's hands caught her wrists to prevent further harm to his person and ducked down to bite at her own throat. She turned and tucked her head down, pushing him away even as he smirked, catching sight of the indentations that his teeth had left behind on the once unmarred skin. Their eyes met, all challenge and power, while they continued to hold onto the other in a lock of strength and wills. Savannah had one knee raised up at the side of Loki's thigh, pressed against the metal wall that covered the furthest side of the Tesseract's chamber, with her body weight leaning against him and caging the god in.

Loki could feel the same call of her power beneath her skin, pure magic seemed to pump in her veins alongside the blood.

The Tesseract seemed to react to her sudden surge of power, glowing brightly where Loki had placed it in the metal cradle. That was enough to draw Savannah's attention back to the real world and she quickly pushed away from Loki, leaving him to lean against the wall and watch her with a sharp look in his emerald eyes. Without another word, she turned and left.

Savannah was reprimanding herself as she marched through the ever moving bodies of people, scientists and engineers all swarming in the room outside of the chamber. They didn't even look toward her, it was as though she was just one of the many people that Loki had brought with him to the underground tunnels that he was using to hide in.

Before she could slip into those tunnels and escape to the room that he had given her, just to get her mind off of him, Barton intercepted her.

"You need to eat," he said simply, tossing a plane bag at her with the plastic wrapped around the contents inside so that nothing fell out. "You're not a prisoner here, you're a guest."

"It doesn't feel that way," she said softly as she unrolled the bag and glanced inside. Store bought food, from some kind of café she assumed. There was a bottle of water among the packaged foods that she snatched up first, moving to sit on the stonework that overlooked the room, where Loki seemed to favour sitting when he watched the humans working on the Tesseract device. "You work for SHEILD, don't you?"

"Used to," Barton answered, opening up metal briefcases that appeared to hold varies types of ammunition. She looked away from the boxes as she sipped at the cool water, glancing back in the direction of the chamber. The men had returned to their work by some silent command, and Loki was nowhere to be seen.

"Why's he here?" she asked softly, not knowing if Barton even heard her. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to have, either. Should she be asking him something about Loki when the god clearly had some kind of a hold over the people in that room? There was no chance he just so happened to find every scientist and engineer with blue eyes—and abnormal ones at that.

"He's here to rule," Barton answered airily, as though it was an everyday occurrence for a god from another world to come down and take over the planet. "He's from Asgard, also known as the Golden City, or the Realm Eternal. What do you know about the history?"

"Nothing, I'm not much into history anymore," she mumbled out. It made since, considering she had been a part of history that people learned about every day in schools and through books or the internet.

"Loki is the God of Mischief and Chaos, younger brother to Thor, the God of Thunder. A couple years ago, Thor was banished from Asgard by their father, the ruler of Asgard, for punishment because he almost started war with another race. Loki became king during that time and tried to kill the Jotuns, a race of Frost Giants; the same race that had caused Thor's banishment." Savannah had turned her body as Barton was speaking, her eyes fixed on him as he told her what he knew. He was working on loading a collection of guns the entire time, but he never broke pace. "Being the younger brother, Loki always came second to Thor, the golden son. So, when he was King he tried to wipe out the entire race of Frost Giants, for his father. To make him proud. But his father didn't approve, so he allowed himself to fall into space and land here, on Earth."

"So if he can't rule Asgard, he wants to rule Earth?"

"Earth has a special meaning to Thor, so if Loki can claim it, he'll have finally one-upped his brother."

"A family feud isn't a good enough reason for killing, hurting, or ruining thousands of lives!" Savannah hissed out in outrage, before taking a deep breath and collecting herself as best she could. Barton turned to watch her calmly, eerie blue eyes trained on her face as she closed her eyes in concentration. "Is there a computer that I can use to do some research?" she asked after a moment, her golden eyes meeting his once more.

Only minutes later, she was back in her room with the laptop Barton had acquired for her sitting in her lap. She was able to get very basic internet access on it, allowing her to research Loki: The God of Mischief. It was interesting and strange to be reading about someone that literally had legends based on him. She had met a god, someone that was worshipped and praised.

"What are you reading?" Loki's voice carried through from the doorway to her room. Savannah didn't even look up but her eyebrow raised against her will as she read over a particular piece of information that was quite curious.

"Is it true that you gave birth to a horse?" she asked, both wanting to know the answer and regretting having asked. She didn't want to anger the man because of the advantages he had over her in strength and knowledge. However, he simply sighed and the next moment was sprawled out on the bed beside her, propped up on one elbow as he looked at the screen of the computer.

"Would it disgust you if I told you that, yes, I gave birth to a horse?" Loki retorted, looking up toward her face. Savannah finally looked away from the screen to stare off at the far wall, thinking.

"That depends on _how_ you gave birth to an eight-legged horse."

Loki smirked before his entre form shimmered, before an exact replica of Savannah was reclined beside her, causing the blonde haired woman to jump where she was sitting and move away from him slightly. Her eyes were wide as she looked down at the sorcerer, turned sorceress, and ended up looking into eyes identical to her own. He had gotten her down to the exact shade of her hair, leaving her slightly unsettled by the sight. It answered her question, however.

"You can shape-shift," she muttered in awe, looking over her own body. She didn't realize that that was how she looked in the clothes had had created for her. It did look like a feminized, more modern style to what he wore. The mirror image shimmered again and soon Loki was lying beside her again, but this time he was wearing what appeared to be battle armour and the horned helm she had seen in depictions of him on the internet. The amour appeared to have manifested onto the clothing he had been wearing before, with many of the metal plates being replaced with golden ones.

"Would you like your own armour?" he asked, seeing her inspecting the new garb he had on.

Before she even had a chance to reply the computer was snapped closed on her lap and placed on the nightstand, Loki left leaning over her with the arcing golden horns nearly touching her own forehead. The helm framed his face perfectly and made his high cheekbones more defined and noticeable. His other hand glided along the front of her chest, curving from one shoulder, down along her breastbone before up to the opposite shoulder. Without even looking when knew there was golden armour appearing over her clothes, the weight of it telling her all.

In answer, she lifted her hand up to trace her fingers along the gold collar that was molded into the black breastplate he had beneath his coat.

Loki's hand hadn't stilled, however, and was steadily tracing down one of her arms, his other hand keeping him up, with the weight of appearing armour following his cool fingers. Savannah's still free hand lifted up to his cheek, stroking along the crease where the jaw guard of his helm met the skin of his cheek, her fingers warm against his flesh. Reaching up, she gently began to lift the helm from Loki's head, revealing the black hair beneath.

In one fluid movement, Loki manoeuvred himself over her completely, straddling her thighs, while she pulled the helm free and tossed it to where he had previously been lying beside her. Without the horns of his helmet preventing him, Loki bent to claim her lips while he began to weave his magic over her, completing the armour on her other arm and down her torso. Savannah's breath hitched as she wound an arm around his neck to draw him down against her, the familiar race of her heart returning.

Loki almost seemed to tremble against her as her hand slipped up into the length of his black hair, her nails briefly scraping at the exposed skin at the back of his neck. Her other hand was able to slip up beneath his overcoat, feeling the thick leather of his underclothes, joined by more metal plating and protective gear. She was beginning to feel lightheaded and pulled back from the kiss to take in a deep breath, her hand fisting in his hair.

Loki used her moment of lost concentration to slip an arm under her back and hoist her up, changing them to a vertical position as she sat on his thighs, his arm keeping her up against him as she was forced to changer her footing to keep herself balanced.

"Why do you keep doing that?" she asked breathlessly, turning her head to the side so as not to get distracted by his eyes again.

Loki was the God of Lies, there was no one that he could not lie to nor a person that could lie to him, and yet with that question he found that his tongue was tied. He had promised not to lie to her, but to tell her to truth would be bad. Because, in truth, he wasn't entirely sure. What would he gain by having her attracted to him? He wanted to harness her magic and that could be achieved with a simple feeling of trust. He wanted her to be attracted to him, on some deep level, and he felt hat it had a connection with her magic and that it seemed to call to him from deep in her bones.

When she got no reply from him, she slowly slid from his thighs, his arm giving way to let her back away. Once they were no longer touching, she allowed herself to look at him. It was impossible to deny the physical attraction that she had for him, the looks of dark clashing with pale something that was so appealing on him. However, she found that she was slowly beginning to become drawn toward the inner nature of him as well. At least, when he wasn't acting in such ways that caused her to pull away.

"Why am I really here, Loki? To be used for my power; a power that I don't even know how to gain access to-"

"In the beginning," Loki interrupted, looking over to where the laptop was sitting on the nightstand to avoid her eyes. "In the beginning, I had thought that I could use you to aid me in claiming this planet as mine, but now…now you intrigue me in a way that I wasn't expecting. You are powerful, Savannah, and don't even know it. The magic that is inside of you is a magic that is passed down in birth, not just learned like myself. I am drawn to your power, as pure and untainted as it is, however…"

Savannah waited for him to continue, but Loki seemed to be biting him tongue. Sighing softly, she fell back to sit on her calves and reached across to gently pick up the helm, her fingers caressing the gold.

"I think it's time we were fully truthful to one another," she said softly, reaching forward and softly, carefully, sliding the helm back into place over his head, making him appear lethal and threatening, but so alluring at the same time.

**I'm back, and so are the wonderful Loki filled chapters! **


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